Mary Moynihan MA

Writer of Novels, Poetry, Films, Plays

Creator of Art and Photography

Creative Reflections on Arts, Creativity, Equality, Leadership and Self-Esteem

Mary Moynihan, MA, she/her, is an award-winning author of novels, poetry, films and plays, and a creator of art and photography. Mary is from Dublin, Ireland. Mary embarked upon her award-winning career as a writer in theatre and film and has garnered much acclaim for her plays, poetry and short film scripts, and for creating interdisciplinary artworks combining writing and photography presented in galleries and online. She established and became Artistic Director of Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality and is Artistic Curator for the annual Dublin Arts and Human Rights festival. Mary has an honours BA in Drama and Theatre Studies from Trinity College Dublin and an honours Masters in Film Production from TU Dublin.

After raising four children, now adults, Mary dedicated her time to becoming a writer. She writes fiction for young people and adults featuring stories of courage, laughter, tragedy, happiness, love, death and action-packed adventures. Mary is the author of a young adult fantasy novel Amergin and the Warriors of Zen. In her adult fiction, Mary’s characters are clever, fearless, vulnerable, crazy, strong, and dangerous, looking for love, fun, success and happiness. Her work promises enthralling plots, dramatic lives, lots of laughs, serious flirting and sexual intrigue and insights into love, happiness, creativity and meaning in life.

Mary pens a series of articles titled Creative Reflections on Arts, Creativity, Leadership and Self-Esteem which appear in the Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality newsletter and on Mary’s website marymoynihan.ie

In her free time Mary loves to spend time with her four adult children and hang out with friends.  She swims in the sea all year round. She loves the ocean, sky and moon and has a spiritual connection to the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea, to the environs of Dublin bay and to the mystical landscapes of Valentia Island and the surrounding Iveragh peninsula in County Kerry, her spiritual home. She is a big fan of the Dublin Gaelic football and hurling teams.

Smashing Times

Mary is Artistic Director of Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality working collaboratively with artists and over fifty organisations across Ireland, Northern Ireland, Europe and internationally, using the arts to promote rights and values for all. Company patrons are Sabina Higgins; Joan Freeman, founder of Pieta House; Ger Ryan, actor and Tim Pat Coogan, writer and historian. Founding patrons were writers Maeve Binchy and Brian Friel.

Mary is Artistic Curator for the annual, international Dublin Arts and Human Rights festival implemented by Smashing Times and Front Line Defenders with Amnesty International, Fighting Words, ICCL, NWCI, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Trócaire, Poetry Ireland and Irish Pen, and funded by The Arts Council. The festival highlights the extraordinary work of human rights defenders in Ireland and around the world, past and present, and the role of the arts and artists in promoting human rights today.

Awards

Mary’s work has won a number of awards, including the Allianz Business to Arts Special Judges DAA Arts Award at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, the international and prestigious #ArtsAgainstCovid award from the Arts in Health International Foundation and an Arts Council Agility Award. Mary was awarded a Project Award from The Arts Council to write a new work with a range of collaborators titled The Feeling Soul, inspired by stories of women poets from ancient and modern Ireland.   

Writer of Novels, Poetry, Films and Plays

Mary is the author of the epic spoken word poem  ‘Ode to a Coolock Queen’’, written from a female perspective and exploring identity, gender, violence, passion, self-destruction and possible redemption. An attempt as Sylvia Plath says  ‘to be true to my own weirdnesses’. It is an oral storytelling narrative that is about a broader reflection on what it is to be born out of a working class environment.  This poem is in homage to all people from working-class communities who find their strength and become their own kings and queens like warriors from an ancient past.

Mary is the author of a young adult fantasy novel Amergin and the Warriors of Zen. As a playwright, Mary’s work includes the highly acclaimed The Woman is Present: Women’s Stories of WWII co-written with Paul Kennedy, Fiona Thompson and Féilim James; Memorial Monologues: The Path of Memory; Tales of Love and Loss featuring two monologues selected by President Michael D Higgins for performance at Áras an Uachtaráin, Constance and Her Friends and Grace and Joe for performance in 2023; In One Breath from the award-winning Testimonies(co-written with Paul Kennedy); Shadow of My Soul and May Our Faces Haunt You.

Plays for children and young people include Gathering on the Pond, a comedy play on the environment by Mary Moynihan and Aoife Reilly;  Love the Earth by Mary Moynihan – A Change-Makers Storytelling session for ages 5 to 12 years adapted from three stories – The Water Princess, The Hummingbird, and The Salmon of Knowledge – from Goal’s Global Citizenship Education Resource; and Four Great Plays for Young Children, a series of short plays suitable for performance by children ages 5 to 12 years – The Children of Lir, The Three Bears, The Princess Play and Legend of the Dragon Kings

Mary has a focus on using historical memory in her artistic practice as inspiration for the creation of original artworks. A number of her writings highlight stories of ordinary yet extraordinary women who stood up for the rights of others with a focus on the Holocaust, WWII and the revolutionary period in Irish history.

Mary’s documentary film work includes The Shoah: A Survivor’s Memory – The World’s Legacy, adapted from the writings of French woman Simone Veil (1927-2017), a French lawyer, politician and feminist, Holocaust survivor and first female President of the European Parliament; the creative documentary Women in an Equal Europe; the short film Letter to a Human Rights Defender based on words by Mary Lawlor, a Human Rights Defender, founder of Front Line Defenders and UN Ambassador on Human Rights Defenders; the hour-long documentary Stories from the Shadows reflecting on the arts in peacebuilding in Northern Ireland (co-directed with Mark Quinn);  You Matter, a filmed interview with social justice campaigner Dil Wickremasinhge and the short documentary Acting for the Future on the role of the arts to promote positive mental health and well-being and suicide prevention for Travellers in Ireland.

Keep in touch with Mary on:

Tel: + 00 353 (0) 87 7438722

Email: marymoynihanarts@gmail.com

Website: MaryMoynihan.ie

Follow Mary on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn

Anna Fitzgerald is a creative writer, performer, drama teacher and accountant! She attended the Audrey Meredith School of Drama and completed the Irish Board of Speech and Drama Grade Exams, Associate and the Licentiate Teaching Diplomas. In 2023, she founded ‘Drama at the Harold’ and ‘Drama at Glasthule’. She is a member of Shifting Stages, a newly founded collective of mothers and theatre makers, dedicated to supporting each other’s practices. The collective evolved from ‘Waking the Feminists’ (WTF) movement in 2015 where artists questioned the role of women in Theatre in Ireland and ‘Mother Artist Makers’ (MAM) a collective of mothers in Irish theatre who advocate for career supports for creative practitioners with caring responsibilities and to promote family friendly arts practices.  She is working on her Irish Goddess collection of stories since developing the concept for her professional diploma in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership in UCD in 2019. She performed original pieces from the Goddess Series during Culture Night 2023 and 2025 in the DLR Mill Theatre and the Lab, Dublin City Arts Offices, Foley Street. 

Aoife Kavanagh is an actor based in Dublin and Kildare working throughout film and theatre. She graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 2025 which a First Class Honours Degree in Drama and Theatre. Her love for performance has developed over many years, from starting speech and drama classes at six years old, as well as training in ballet and various other forms of dance. Her performance credits include Better Out Than In Campaign (Belong To Youth Services, 2025), Evoe (Samuel Beckett Theatre, 2025), CHAOS (Samuel Beckett Theatre, 2024), Pinstripe (Samuel Beckett Theatre, 2024), Until Death (Virgin Media, 2022) and Hall of Healing (Kill Musical & Dramatic Society, 2022). Aoife also has experience in stage management and costume design. Her costume credits include costume designer of No Exit (Samuel Beckett Theatre, 2025), The Contest (Samuel Beckett Theatre, 2024) and assistant costume on Uncanny Valley (Samuel Beckett Theatre, 2023). Her stage management credits include Sell By Date (Samuel Beckett Theatre, 2025), Anna (Samuel Beckett Theatre, 2024) and This Too Shall Pass (Samuel Beckett Theatre, 2023).